Wine is an open-source software application that allows Linux users to run Windows programs. This can be helpful for programmers, who have to test the compatibility of programs and scripts with Windows. Wine also includes a software library (Winelib) to allow developers to compile applications for Windows on Unix-like servers.

Steps

1

Gather everything you need to know to run the programs that you are trying to use. When googling for guides type in "Learn Wine Linux". This may come in handy, if you would like more guides.

Click on the version of Linux you are running. If you don't see your version of Linux, try finding out what your version is based off of. For example "Linux Mint" is based off of the earlier Ubuntu and Debian versions. So most will normally work if they are related. But if you have an exact match, all the better!

4

Download. If you do not install from the box that pops up, after downloading:
Right click on the icon
Click install
Follow the steps

5

After you see the new wine features in your "Application} or "Start Menu", don't think you're finished. You will now discover a new folder. It's called .wine. It's located in your home folder. For some it's home/user-name.

Go to the home folder.
Look for your user-name. Open it.
Once inside, hold down both of these keyboard keys and in order: Ctrl + H. You will be able to see all of the hidden or invisible folders.

Remember this folder. It is very important. Again it is your "Program Files." Remember where to find it and that it is invisible unless you press the Control+H in your /home/user-name folder.

8

Start downloading .exe programs (Windows programs).

9

Make sure you place them inside this "Program Files" folder before you try to install them. Otherwise, you will probably fail miserably.

10

Once placed in the "Programs Files", you can now right click on them. A rectangular box will pop up with many options. Click the option to install with Wine Windows Program Loader. Install a program.

11

After this, you can go to your panel menu or start menu and see if your programs are there. Attempt to run them and play with the program. If this does not work for you, try the words "learn Wine Linux" or "how Wine Linux" on this site to see if anything new has appeared. You might also find that typing the same words into blog.google.com is super useful.

12

Do a search to find out if your program is compatible with Wine. There are still many programs that are not working yet. However, there appears to be a number that do also.